This invention relates generally to gas turbine engine nozzles and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for cooling gas turbine engine nozzles.
Gas turbine engines include combustors which ignite fuel-air mixtures which are then channeled through a turbine nozzle assembly towards a turbine. At lease some known turbine nozzle assemblies include a plurality of nozzles arranged circumferentially and configured as doublets. A turbine nozzle doublet includes a pair of circumferentially-spaced hollow airfoil vanes coupled by integrally-formed inner and outer band platforms.
The doublet type turbine nozzles facilitate improving durability and reducing leakage in comparison to non-doublet turbine nozzles. Furthermore, turbine nozzle doublets also facilitate reducing manufacturing and assembly costs. In addition, because such turbine nozzles are subjected to high temperatures and may be subjected to high mechanical loads, at least some known doublets include an identical insert installed within each airfoil vane cavity to distribute cooling air supplied internally to each airfoil vane. The inserts include a plurality of openings extending through each side of the insert.
In a turbine nozzle, the temperature of the external gas is higher on the pressure-side than on the suction-side of each airfoil vane. Because the openings are arranged symmetrically between the opposite insert sides, the openings facilitate distributing the cooling air throughout the airfoil vane cavity to facilitate achieving approximately the same operating temperature on opposite sides of each airfoil. However, because of the construction of the doublet, mechanical loads and thermal stresses may still be induced unequally across the turbine nozzle. In particular, because of the orientation of the turbine nozzle with respect to the flowpath, typically the mechanical and thermal stresses induced to the trailing doublet airfoil vane are higher than those induced to the leading doublet airfoil vane. Over time, continued operation with an unequal distribution of stresses within the nozzle may shorten a useful life of the nozzle.